Num. 8:1 - 12:16
Précis: The parasha begins with a description of the making of the seven-branched menorah. The parasha returns to narrative with a recounting of a second Passover celebration (required because some of the Israelites had been ritually impure when the first anniversary of Passover was celebrated). The march of the People through the wilderness of Sinai begins, led by the Ark. The people murmur, this time about a lack of meat. God provides, but the People are struck with a plague. Even Miriam and Aaron seem to have complaints about Moses regarding the “Cushite woman.”
Num. 8:1-3 “And Adonai spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, and say to him: When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the candlestick.’ Aaron did so….”
The seven branched menorah has become the symbol of the Jewish People. Its story reaches back to ancient times, when it served as the light for the Temple, kindled every day. It later signified the defeat of the Jewish People by the Romans, evidenced by its appearance on the triumphal Arch of Titus. And it became the symbol of the reconstituted State of Israel, appearing on its seal.
Isaac Luria taught that six branches of the Menorah represented the six “academic disciplines” recognized at his time (theology, canon law, medicine, arts, humanities, and science) and that the seventh branch was Torah, which in turn illuminates all secular knowledge.
He informs us that Torah and secular learning are not rivals. As is stated in Etz Hayyim, each can illuminate the other. Today, there are some (particularly among the most Orthodox parts of Judaism) who reject this confluence. To my mind, they have something to learn from Pope Leo’s recent encyclical regarding artificial intelligence. Scientific (secular) achievements cannot ignore moral dictates, and those steeped in religious learning cannot ignore the secular world. Those who are most concerned with religious/moral understanding have the great responsibility of informing the secular world about the need to implement moral guardrails in secular achievements.
